In Colorado, a Rebranding of Pot Inc.

Step into a Colorado pot dispensary at random, and you’ll long for the luxuries of the D.M.V.

Metal bars cover windows. Vinyl signs are tacked to walls. Guys in hoodie sweatshirts greet you from behind the counter. Even the act of ordering the product itself is borderline absurd. What grown adult can respectfully walk into a store and ask for an eighth of Green Krack and a nub of Big Buddha Cheese, please?

But that experience is changing, thanks to a new breed of entrepreneur in Colorado — young, ambitious and often female — that is trying to reach a more sophisticated clientele in everything from language to packaging to social events.

“We’re weeding out the stoners,” said Olivia Mannix, the 25-year-old co-founder of a start-up called Cannabrand, an advertising agency devoted exclusively to marketing marijuana. “We want to show the world that normal, professional, successful people consume cannabis.”

Colorado became the first of two states to legalize recreational marijuana sales this year, paving the way for millions in tax revenue, and a new kind of consumer. That is why, on a recent weekend, Ms. Mannix and her co-founder, Jennifer DeFalco, were camped out in Aspen for a pot-themed (and pot-induced) brainstorming session.

The gathering was billed as a “writer’s retreat,” but mostly it involved talking. They discussed edible marijuana and flavor pairings over a meal prepared by Melissa Parks, a chef trained at Le Cordon Bleu (THC-infused truffles optional). They contemplated strain hybrids and herbal remedies, with commentary from a self-described “cannabis sommelier,” as well as the “gangapreneurs” who have flocked to Colorado since pot was made legal, not wanting to miss out on the so-called green rush.

And, of course, they talked about branding: How can the pot industry shed its stoner stigma?

Pot has practically gone mainstream. A majority of Americans now supports legalization efforts. There are coming ballot measures in Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia. Yet when it comes to pot culture, the industry remains comically rudimentary.

“The average person, when you say the word ‘marijuana,’ they have a visceral reaction,” said Paul Armentano, the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, one of the oldest of such groups. “There’s a reason the alcohol industry spends tens of millions of dollars to advertise and market their products. Successful branding pays off.”

So where do branding specialists begin? For starters, they would like to stop calling it pot, thank you very much. Better to call it cannabis, the plant’s scientific name. (Less aggressive.) Rather than “smoke,” one “consumes” the “product.” (Subtler.) For those in the business — or cannabusiness, as it’s known — 9-to-5 chic is crucial, said the Cannabrand owners: no sweats, no tie-dye, no Bob Marley T-shirts.

While smoking (or rather, consuming) on the job seems to be par for the course, it’s not without a certain decorum: a dainty-looking joint or perhaps a vaporizer pen (like an e-cigarette for weed) that slides neatly in a purse or pocket.

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Meg Sanders, chief executive of Mindful, a network of pot dispensaries in Colorado that was recently overhauled, in a processing room.CreditMorgan Rachel Levy for The New York Times

Cultural crossover is already well underway in the state. The Colorado Symphony made headlines this summer when it began a series of shows called “Classically Cannabis,” in which free-spirited music lovers were invited to B.Y.O.P.

Throughout Denver, there are monthly cocktail and cannabis events, put on by a local party planner, as well as a weekly painting course called Puff, Pass and Paint, hosted in a charming Victorian studio — an effort to, as Heidi Keyes, the cheerful 28-year-old instructor, put it, blend “Mary Jane and Monet.”

Cannabrand recently rolled out a yoga class called Vape and Vinyasa. The company is working on an app that will allow users to place their pot order online and skip the line (as they describe it, “like an OpenTable for weed”).

“The thing is,” said Ms. DeFalco, who is the duo’s creative director, “baby boomers are smoking, stay-at-home moms are smoking, business executives are smoking. But for so long, they’ve done it behind closed doors. We want to bring them out of the shadows.”

And they want to keep them out there. Meg Sanders, the chief executive of a network of dispensaries called Mindful, recently hired Cannabrand to do an overhaul of her company, formerly called Gaia.

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Edible marijuana goodies made by Melissa Parks.CreditMorgan Rachel Levy for The New York Times

The new name was chosen to reflect the brand philosophy, she said, but also to modernize its look — in everything from logo to the uniforms worn by employees to the dispensaries’ shabby insides. Many of the marketing materials do not even mention the word “cannabis” (or any other word for pot).

“I’ve heard time and time again, ‘I walk into a dispensary and I feel like I’m walking into a stoner’s basement,’ ” said Ms. Sanders during a tour through the expansive factory where her plants are harvested. (It also acts as the company’s headquarters.) “So we really had to think, ‘How do we package our product in a way that wherever we go — whether it’s the most liberal or the most conservative clientele — people look at us and think, “I get it. I’m not offended by this.” ’ It’s not Joey’s weed shop, you know?”

Ms. Mannix and Ms. DeFalco studied together at the University of Colorado at Boulder, though neither has a business background (Ms. Mannix studied communications, Ms. DeFalco advertising). They are young, working overtime trying to project a business savvy, but they’ve also filled a hole in the industry that the mainstream business sector has yet to touch.

For example, the women were among the sponsors of a recent career fair called CannaSearch to recruit for some of the 500 open pot jobs in the state. The jobs included dispensary workers, yes, but also horticulturalists, social media managers and marketing executives. The applicants showed up — among them, C-suite level executives, said Ms. Sanders — but not a single mainstream brand had even a sponsorship presence.

“There is a huge untapped market here,” said Ashley Picillo, a 26-year-old former teacher who runs a cannabis events agency and was the fair’s co-organizer. “It’s about reaching nonconsumers. Women. Young people. Business professionals. Grandmothers and soccer moms. People like me.”

In other words: more Aspen, less Cheech and Chong.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page ST1 of the New York edition with the headline: In Colorado, a Rebranding of Pot Inc.. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe